From a house a home emerges

The great long move-in has started, to be completed just in time to celebrate Christmas in our new home. Hooray for the transforming magic of books, soft furnishings and Ikea!

On that note - the time has come to wind up this blog. We're still putting up the shed, still digging a hole for the pool (yep, campaign successful) but the still doing this and still doing that will go on for a long time and the house is essentially finished. So thanks for being interested in our build, you'll just have to visit in person to see all the final bits and pieces and especially to check out progress of the garden...though actually... that might just be another blog!

C of O

That's Certificate of Occupancy, and we now have it, meaning we can legally move in. And the builder's clean is done so we actually can start moving stuff in, which is exciting, but will sadly reduce the number of potential spots for hide & seek.

Pergolas finished

Clean

Views to the sea

Hide & seek

Heating pipes for the hot water & hydronic heating

The pergola goes up

What's this that frames my view as I gaze out my louge room to the permaculture chook & vegetable garden clock contraption? Ahhh, why it's the pergola. Are not carpenters clever? A few bits of timber, a few good hours, a drop saw and a few bolts...voila, they've thrown up a structure that would have taken us days and days to complete.

The dual pergolas are the last elements of the build required for our certificate of occupancy....some sparkling may just be going on ice.

Quilt #2

Well, after quilt #1 took 11 months, I reckon I've done pretty well with this one taking roughly 4-5.

Perhaps it's like labour and the length of time it takes approximately halves each time. That would mean the next one is done for Christmas...as well as packing, flat-packing, unpacking...then again, maybe not.

Entry - tick!

It was raining. But it still looked pretty fancy.

Lighting up

We stayed until dark on the last visit to check out the magic of electricity. It occasioned much singing, dancing, running and a celebratory feast right where the dining table will go.

Oh so soft...

The carpet that is.

A final floor polish

The various tradies are starting to sign off: concrete floors - tick!

The kids have been told very clearly they are to remove their shoes on entry when we next visit (tonight on our way to W'bool, especially because the carpets will also be ready for viewing. I think I will be reasonably relaxed about such things once we move in, but because the move-in date is a little way away yet, I have a need to keep it pristine till then.

A light out of a box

We picked up our David Trubridge coral pendant. Well, we actually picked up a box of environmentally friendly packaged plywood pieces and then spent a merry Friday evening putting it together. Then we had a coral pendant and now it's hanging in our future entry.



Question: What's wrong with this photo?

Answer: There's nothing in it that still needs to be done (oh alright, except for the plastic wrap off the light). It seems that when the end is in sight, the to-do lists are getting longer!

The green, green grass of the backyard

All looking lovely and neat after Bill came with his slasher. Can you spot a) the pile of stuff that from which will emerge a three-bay shed? and b) the new water tank (close-up below)?

A sliding wall

Now it's open...

Now it's closed...

This sliding door/room divider took a lot of thought and Internet searches. In the original sketch from the architect it was 2/3 wall and a big sliding door for the last 1/3, but last Christmas, whilst sitting in Mum & Dad's large loungeroom with extended family we felt we really wanted the flexibility of a big room when we had a crowd over i.e. around the Christmas tree whilst maintaining the ability to make two quite separate rooms.

An end of September status report

September was to be the month in which the house was finished. Luckily, we are not waiting to move in at the earliest possible convenience. There is a lot finished. There is also a lot on the still-to-do list. New additions include:

A front door - Dulux Tristan



Shower screens



A new concrete slab awaiting water tanks but good for picnics in the meantime.



Looking for a place to hang

Whilst I am most satisfied with the neutral walls and finishes appearing each day on the house, there is a singificant sized part of me urging need colour, need colour so I am looking forward to adding the soft furnishings and pictures that will give the place some of our life and warmth.

For the first time ever I have even commissioned some original pieces - courtesy of the younger members of this family - and we are all very pleased with the results.


Homemade by the kids under my (close) supervision, inspired by the artwork created with playgroup and auctioned at a recent church fundraising market. All fabrics have been used in clothing I have made for the kids so there's a nice nostalgic touch. Box frame from Ikea.



Artists: Leisel & Meg (Jack's isn't quite finished yet), Frames: Ikea

I know just the spot for these...

Handy handles

We can now open cupboards. Progress.

A tap or two

Not long now before we can turn on a tap...and water will come out. Magic.

Recovering Ikea

Remember Bemz? the company that exists to make good quality removable covers for Ikea furniture? I was very excited to discover them some time back and finally got around to a trial order before committing on the couch front. The old (white!) cover of this Poang chair was suffering from livinginahousewiththreesmallchildrenitis. I ordered on-line from the Swedish company who then custom-made my cover in Lithuania and posted it over. The whole process took about 6 weeks. And yes, the fabric fits.



The bathrooms are on the way

I ummed and aahed over the mosaics for ages. I love the look of mosaics. If I look at bathrooms in a magazine, my eyes are drawn constantly to mosaics. Mosaics in the shower, mosaics around the bath, mosaics on the floor. It's fair to say my heart was set on mosaics. However, along with mosaics comes all that grout. Grout that can get grubby and mouldy and take nasty chemicals to keep clean. The green side of my brain knew I should be choosing tiles as large as possible to minimise the cleaning, so for a while there it was going to be big tiles all over everywhere. And yet, I love mosaics! Eventually I reached a compromise with myself. There's room to both be green and to love mosaics. In the ensuite the mosaics are well away from the shower and should stay dry and mould free most of the time. And as for the mosaic clad bath in the dowbstairs bathoom, well, I love it and....better pass the toothbrush.

Sizing up a few things

With a bit of assistance, I have started checking out some sizes of future lights and wall-hangings. Not one of the items in the following photos is actual size or actual fabric, but they were on loan or in my stash and gave me a good idea of the sizes that might work best for what I do have in mind...and the modelling was worth a few photos here!